Okay, it drove me nuts that most Everworld fics were just slash and mature content and all that jazz, and right off the bat I want to let you know that this isn't one of those.
I've never come across a crossover of Applegate's books, though I've never looked for one, so maybe it's a sort of original idea. Hope you like it.
Also, I'm looking for a beta for this. I'm a bit uneasy about using this cross, and it would really be great to have some help with it. Only one requirement for betas: you gotta be picky about it. :P
KIWI
Chapter 1
My name is April O'Brian.
I can't tell you what state I live in. Not because I don't want you to find me, but simply because I don't live there anymore. I live in Everworld, not America. And right now, my friends and I were in a pickle, a VERY big pickle. Sure, we'd freed Thor, Odin and Baldur. Yes, we allied ourselves with Merlin. THE Merlin. We finally had Loki on our side, after running from him and his elephant of a wolf-son, Fernir for what seemed like forever. The Olympian gods would most likely help us if we could get them to stop fighting each other for a while. However, Hel really, really wanted to kill us, or worse, add us to her sick little chamber of people who should be dead that continued to live. The people whose decaying bodies paved the entrance to her sickening underground home. And we can't forget the fairy folk of course, whom we stole back Nidhoggr's trinkets from. Only a trillionth of his gigantic treasure, but still, they didn't really like us.
And you ask, "SAY WHAT?"
I'm getting to it.
My friends David, Jalil, Christopher and I are stuck in Everworld now, the gateway being destroyed and all. By me. What, never heard of Everworld? I'm not surprised.
Well, way back when, I don't know exactly how long ago, all the ancient gods of the world decided that they were sick of boring old earth. So they decided to make their own universe with their own rules, one where they only had to think about it and they would grow about twenty feet so that they could squish someone under their foot. And then all the gods, Aztec, Viking, Egyptian, Roman AND Greek, African, Celtic and god knows what else all got up and moved, dragging along with them their share of humans, animals and legends, because let's face it, a god just isn't a god without someone to fall on their knees and quiver and beg for their lives… or deaths every time they see you. It depends on whom you're dealing with.
Me? I'm a religious person. One God's good enough for me. But, considering that I can't just wish the others away, I'll have to deal with them too.
So far in Everworld, I've been chained to a wall by Loki, gone to war with Vikings, killed the Aztec god, Huitzilocoptli, given blood to Galahad, only to see him die at the hand, or claw, of a dragon, and been through the realm of Hel, twice. As I mentioned before, I helped Nidhoggr, the way-too-big-to-exist-forget-about-fly dragon retrieve his little toys from the well-anticipated leprechauns, barely made it out of Ka Anor's fortress alive, watched Ganymede die, rode a flying horse, fought for the Greek gods of Olympus, been through Africa, where we found our dead Viking friends and destroyed a gigantic tree that joined their underworld to the above world using blood from my half-sister/witch/gateway, Senna. We went to Egypt to find Senna's mother, ended up in Neptune's underwater home, then escaped to old Ireland where we warred with Senna's army, consisting of a bunch of sociopaths from the real world with a hell of a lot of ammunition, and I killed her. Oh, and I played Mimi in Rent when the drama club put it on.
Up until when I killed Senna, we were poised between worlds. Me, David, Christopher and Jalil lived two lives at once, one in reality and one in Everworld. When we slept in Everworld, we crossed over into our normal lives, the ones not dominated by fear and Gods and ten-foot-tall wolves. It was a very nasty surprise for the halves of us that hadn't been dragged along with Senna to Everworld.
CNN Breaking News! April, you're in a war, about to die… again.
I've been inches from death a hell of a lot. The four of us are very hard to kill. Yet, after the death of the gateway, we were left with a choice: fade away in the real world and possibly be stuck in Everworld forever, or fade out of Everworld, leaving them to either die or find Senna's mom and use her to get to the real world, or the Old World as they call it here. Imagine Huitzilopoctli sitting up on top of a skyscraper, bussing up victims by elevator so he can tear out their hearts. Not good. We decided to stay.
Fingers snapped in front of my face.
"April, Everworld to April…" Jalil chanted.
I snapped from my trance. "Yeah?"
"Merlin's here."
We had been traveling a long time, since breaking back into Hel's realm to free Thor and Baldur, we'd been heading to mount Olympus, hopefully to convince the Gods there to unite, or at least stop trying to kill each other. Merlin was supposed to meet us there.
"Oh," I said brilliantly.
Merlin looked like he'd seen a ghost. Or maybe a better description would be he looked like a ghost. Even long ago when Loki had been advancing on Merlin, and we all thought it could have been his final moment, Merlin hadn't had fear such as this. Merlin knew his way around Everworld, and I highly doubt Ka Anor scared him in the slightest either. After all, Ka Anor eats gods, not wizards or mortals. He walked up to us quickly, and whispered, "He… he has a message for you."
"Who does?" David asked.
"Crayak."
Time stopped. Literally. I've seen gods do some crazy stuff, but never in my whole life have I seen time stop. Merlin stood frozen, still trying to walk to us. Trees that were blowing in the wind had simply stopped moving. Jalil groaned in frustration.
"Again, not possib-"
But he didn't finish what he was saying, because suddenly, we were before HIM.
I snapped my eyes to the floor automatically, feeling a presence. I knew what gods could do to you just by looking at them, and I didn't want to experience it. Even though instinct told me this wasn't a god, it also told me not to look at the horror before me, so I didn't. My eyes stared at the concrete floor, and I noticed something very strange out of the corner of my eye: bare feet. My friends and I had been wearing sneakers the whole time in Everworld. Slowly I looked up at the person with bare feet, still careful to keep my eyes away from the god-like creature at the front of the room. It was a boy with blonde hair. He was built strongand very handsome, but his eyes had this weary look, like he'd seen so much more than he should have by his age. He was only one or two years younger than me, and I knew that look, it was the look my friends and I had. He wore tight clothes, and his hair was matted and he looked exhausted, but still, he was handsome. His aged eyes narrowed. "Crayak," he said, hate vibrating with every letter.
JAKEThe sound wasn't even spoken, yet it vibrated through the whole room, seeming to come from the outside room and inside me at the same time. It was more an accusation than it was a greeting, exactly the way Jake had said Crayak's name.
My vision extended beyond the boy, to the other five people around him. There was a dark-skinned girl with short hair and brown eyes, and a light-skinned girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes. Despite the fact that her clothes were torn and she looked exhausted, she still looked like a model. There was another boy, this one olive-skinned with black hair, then there was some sort of bird, maybe a hawk perched on the blonde girl's arm and a centaur, who stood farthest away from us. At least, I thought he was a centaur when I saw his muscular equine body and blue color, but I changed my mind when I saw his tail, which looked much like a scorpion's. That was an alien.
"What do you want, and where's your Drode?" The boy called Jake demanded.
"Um…Jake," the dark-skinned girl said, pointing to the four of us.
Jake turned in surprise, then tensed, ready to fight. Out of the corner of my eye I saw David do the same, reaching for the hilt of his sword. David the hero, always ready for battle.
"Oh no you don't," Christopher said from behind me, stepping forward to grab David's wrist.
Jalil nodded approvingly, then directed a question at the strangers. "Who are you guys?"
The blonde girl smiled menacingly, "That depends on how much you know. Are you yeerks?"
We looked at each other obliviously.
SILENCE!
Everyone turned to face the monster at the front of the room, the one I'd specifically tried not to look at. All I remember now was a huge throne, as big as Loki's, but it wasn't decorated, and this huge red eye. I prayed that the eye would not focus on me. I prayed and hoped with all my might that it would just look away. This was nothing like what I'd experienced so far. This creature was EVIL, evil with a capital P for psychotic. Huitzilopoctli was a puppy dog compared to this. This was the incarnation of all evil in the world.
THE HUMAN-LOVER ELLEMIST AND I HAVE MADE A DEAL. YOU WHO CALL YOURSELVES ANIMORPHS WILL GO TO EVERWORLD AND HELP THESE FOUR. YOU WILL STILL BE ALLOWED TO FIGHT FOR EARTH.
Crayak knew what he was getting these six into, they didn't.
SUCCED AND YOU WILL PREVENT A VITAL EVENT FROM DESTROYING YOUR PLANET. SHOULD THIS EVENT HAPPEN, YEERK AND HUMAN ALIKE WILL DIE. FAIL AND BOTH THE ELLEMIST AND I LOSE THE GAME.
"Game?" David asked.
I couldn't help thinking, what an idiot, he'll bring the eye to focus on us, and at the same time, yeah, what game?
Crayak laughed, and every hair on my body stood on end. A cold prickle went down my spine. This creature was only helping us to serve himself. He didn't want to lose.
Suddenly, we were all back in Everworld, time resuming where we left off.
"Hi," I said nervously, "I'm April."